The Bottom Line vs. the Best Education

by Kristina Chew · 2009-03-07 15:00:00 UTC
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ABC blocks from http://www.preschoollearningonline.com/
My son's in an in-district public school autism program. This year, the school district has had some extra challenges, when a number of new students moved into the district last August, just at the start of the school year, and with "budget cuts" having become a too-familiar phrase in the current economic climate. Today's Buck's County Courier Times reports that a school district in Bristol, Pennsylvania, is taking measures such as moving students from private, out-of-district placements, back to the district. Some 40 new special education students have enrolled in the Bristol schools since July.

These sorts of measures arouse a number of feelings and concerns in me. On the one hand I'm grateful that my school district has been able to create such a good program that people want their children to be in it---on the other hand, more students means more teachers and aides and therapists are needed. (There's already only one Occupational Therapist for all the students on the spectrum in our district----she must be beyond busy.) I think it's important for my son to be educated in a school in our town rather than in a separate school, but this wouldn't be the case if the program and services were at their current level. We know more than a few families whose children attend out-of-district schools here in NJ and IEP time must be extra nerve-wracking as parents know they'll have to contend with a school district thinking more about the bottom line than about the best education.

Up to us to remind school administrators about this; that special education students, like all students, need the best education possible.

Kristina Chew
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